Mariage précoce et déperdition scolaire des filles en milieu rural: Une approche par la coresponsabilité dans la commune de Haute-Baidou (RCA)

Abstract

This research work devoted to early marriage and the school dropout of girls in rural areas is part of a co-responsibility approach in the commune of Haute-Baïdou. The literature on this issue has always considered early marriage as an exclusively parental initiative in the face of which the young girl would only be a simple victim. The authors affiliated with report that the girl would not be considered by the parents as a source of income. Similarly, early marriage and school dropout of girls in rural areas would be the result of strict respect for culture by communities deeply rooted in their traditions. However, the data obtained from our field relativizes this reality. Our research shows that early marriage is not always an exclusively parental enterprise. The girl is also a strategic actress in this phenomenon of early marriage. Furthermore, given the efforts made, we should normally see an improvement in the study condition of girls and the elimination of early marriage. However, every year, thousands of girls leave school for early marriage. This raises the problem of taking into early marriage in the quest for solutions. This work was structured by a central question in particular, that of knowing how early marriage contributes to the school dropout of girls in rural areas. For this, the main hypothesis put forward assumes that early marriage contributes to the school dropout of girls in rural areas through the considerations and representations that the actors grant to it to the detriment of school. To test this hypothesis, we opted for an exclusively qualitative study. It is in this sense that we conducted directive interviews, direct observation and documentary research. For each category of respondents, an interview guide was used to collect data. The information collected was analyzed using the theories of social representations and Pierre Bourdieu's structuralist constructivism. Subsequently, the analysis shows that the young girl has her own representations of early marriage and to achieve her ends, she constructs a set of strategies. She uses early marriage to satisfy her own needs and ambitions. But, when she returns to the marital home, she is confronted with demands linked to her new status as a married woman which oblige her to break with her studies. As a result, she is no longer just a victim, but also an actor in early marriage in rural areas. And in this sense, it is therefore co-responsible for this phenomenon that generates school dropout.